An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude rating of 5.7 was reported near Ferndale, California Friday afternoon.

The United States Geological Survey maps initially reported two moderate earthquakes off of Humboldt County on Friday afternoon, but officials have since clarified that one magnitude 5.7 quake hit in the ocean off of Ferndale.

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The quake, recorded at 12:50 PM local time at a depth of 9 kilometers, struck West of Humboldt Bay in an area that frequently experiences seismic activity.

"It occurred on the Mendocino Fracture Zone," says Jack Boatwright, a seismologist with the USGS office in Meno Park. "It's an active area. We get a lot of earthquakes here."

A magnitude 6.5 quake rocked the area in December 2016, magnitude 7.2 and 6.6 quakes hit the region in June 2005, and a 6.8 shaker struck in March 2014.

Though several people reported feeling shaking on Friday on the USGS "did you feel it feature," few people took to Twitter in Ferndale, Eureka or Arcata to report feeling the shaking.

While quakes are frequent in this region, they rarely cause any damage since their epicenters are usually off the coast.

"While it's widely felt there's no real damaging shaking," Ole Kaven, a research geophysicist with the USGS, told SFGATE. "They will feel shaking but damage associated even with the 6.8 in 2014 was very limited. It's just cosmetic damage like dry wall."